Cinema Retro's London photographer attends a rare London appearance by legendary filmmaker Roger Corman.
SEEING IS "B"ELIEVING
By Mark Mawston
With over
500 movie credits to his name, most of us will have seen a Roger Corman film at
some point, perhaps during their original drive-in engagements or as a
perennial on late night TV. However, a much rarer sight is that of the man
himself, who makes very few appearances on “the circuit†even though he is so
revered. It was therefore a rare treat to meet the maestro at a late night
double bill screening of two of his finest films at the start of the English
bank holiday weekend at the Curzon Soho as part of their Midnight Movies season.
Corman was
in town to introduce what many (including myself) see as his masterpiece - Masque Of The Red Death, as well as the
seldom-seen but highly regarded The
Intruder, starring a young William Shatner. Corman, speaking before a
packed and appreciative crowd, confirmed that The Intruder was his favourite among his own films and went on to
say that it was the epitome of “Guerrilla film making,†as most scenes were shot when and where they
could, often despite run-ins with hostile locals. The film’s stance against
racial and religious prejudice led to some rather unpleasant moments for the
crew as well as death threats to both its director and star. It became apparent
that the crowd had come to primarily see The
Intruder rather than the oft-screened Poe adaptation that boasts Nicholas
Roeg’s beautiful cinematography. In fact, Roeg’s work on Masque has been hugely influential on other directors’ work, from
David Lynch to Peter Greenway. Corman’s influence on American film is
undisputed and the talent he nurtured has become known as “The Roger Corman School Of Filmmakingâ€. The
noted alumni includes Francis Ford Coppola, Martin
Scorsese, Ron Howard, Peter
Bogdanovich, Jonathan Demme, Donald G.
Jackson, Gale Anne Hurd, Joe Dante,
James Cameron,
John Sayles,
Monte Hellman
and Jack Hill, all of whom started their careers with Corman. As an example, Corman
confirmed that in the movie The Terror,
directorial duties were shared by himself, Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop) and Jack Nicholson! Supposedly the film was
broken up into several shoots on free days but overall took less than a week to
film. That’s an epic by Corman standards: The
Little Shop Of Horrors took two days to shoot!